Mark 2:23-24

[jack]

Note: The last couple of entries failed to crosspost from DW to LJ. You can see them at jack.dreamwidth.org if you want.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Is this traditionally a sabbath rule? I know work is forbidden, but does it count if you pick something and eat it then? Eating blackberries feels more like play than fun to me.

I've no idea if this passage is put in to defend the sorts of things Jesus did, or to push the point that Jesus could do that sort of thing.

Or maybe it's another case of "the rules Jesus grew up with weren't picky about the same things"?

The same story appears almost identically in Matthew and Luke, but they don't add much to it.

Comments

[andrewducker]

We're talking about a culture where turning a light on or off on the sabbath is considered wrong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_on_Shabbat_in_Jewish_law#Lighting

They can get pretty strict sometimes. And then find interesting loopholes, of course!

[pseudomonas]

Yes, my understanding is that picking and eating is considered as work for these purposes.